David Copperfield

David Copperfield: by
Charles Dickens
Rating: 10+
Age: mature 12 up

David Copperfield was a great book! A trifle long, perhaps,but I was by no means eager to see it end. This book started out very nicely, and the slower bits that I mentioned that were in The Tale of Two Cities, were virtually non-existent, so if you have never read Dickens, this is the book to start with (I've only read a few, so I reserve the right to change that!).

The gist of the story is this: a little boy grows in a normal childhood setting for the first few years of his life, with his sweet, young mother and doting maid, Peggotty. All to soon, however, his mother marries a hard, angry man and David's new father, Mr. Murdstone, hates him as does the latter's sister. They persecute David until his mother dies and after that, they send him off to work in a factory. Eventually, he runs away to an old aunt. He grows up in a happy family enviroment with his aunt and her rather eccentric companion, Mr. Dick, who is all but crazy. (This actually brings many chances of comedy to the story line.) This is just part of the beginning of the book, and the rest is very entertaining. There is some romance, and one time when he falls in love with a girl and her father is strongly against it, but they follow through and marry after the father died ( I thought that that was sad). There is one other part when David's friend runs away with a girl, but the author did a very good job portraying just how devastating it was to all concerned. On the whole, this was an excellent book, well worth reading.